Its interesting.
Parents use a public forum to discuss their concerns, yet feel that when a third party uses the data exposed in a public forum to better understand their consumers, it becomes 'intrusive'.

These are also the same parents who use Google and Facebook which track not only the content that occurs within their sites, but also collects and manages data about them when they visit other sites around the 'net.

Even still is the greater irony that many feel that its ok for private/public companies to track their personal data, yet if the government did this? There would be riots in the street.

The point is that if you are going to say anything in public, you don't have expectations of privacy. What Glaxo did was not only legal, but in no way intrusive. Had it been a private forum things would be different.

1:29 pm May 2, 2013

Elloo wrote:

I couldn't agree more. It is a public forum. Anyone can mine data legally. If this makes one uneasy...then do not post. I don't get why parents are being so dense about vaccinations. They are proven to work and do not cause autism.

1:32 pm May 2, 2013

TJ wrote:

Came to post something similar to Michael above. Ms Yontz posted on a public forum, knowingly and purposefully putting it out there for anybody to read. The fact that one of the readers tried to glean collective information is irrelevant. If anything, she should be happy that her voice was heard; otherwise why was she posting it.

Michael's comments about government raise other interesting questions. Governments probably do more of this data mining that all the private companies combined. The WH and Congress certainly use these techniques to monitor public opinion and define campaign strategies. The NSA and FBI, etc are authorized to do personal data mining in an effort to protect us from terrorists. If the IRS isn't searching social media to find actual or likely tax evaders, I'd be stunned.

All that government searching makes me very queasy. A private business can attempt to influence me using the data they collected, but it is always my option to say no. The government has the right to compel and/or arrest me. It is a very different thing.

4:35 pm May 2, 2013

LOL wrote:

Anybody wondering how much Glaxo paid to determine that a self-selecting subset of overwrought new mothers associates vaccination with autism? Did Glaxo really need 'data mining' consultancies to accomplish this?

4:48 pm May 2, 2013

vaccine concerned mama wrote:

Perhaps the "elephant" in the room is still not being addressed. While we keep calling it "safety issues", Vaccine injury is being reported at an all time high, and perhaps looking at what the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is crutial to reporting this fairly. While in a lot of places I hear lots and lots of vaccine injury, and adverse events that are happening. While they are happening doctors and Pharma are rushing to discredit each and every single one. Yet parents have a child who had a set of symptoms following a set of vaccines, and those symptoms are listed as possible adverse events, there is still a rush to protect the vaccine policy, and discredit the parents reports. It is an endless cycle of bologna.

4:56 pm May 2, 2013

vaccine concerned mama wrote:

My son had a very serious adverse event that changed the course of his life forever. He suffered encephalopathy post set of vaccines. It caused brain damage. He subsiquently has a diagnosis in the Autism spectrum of disorders. He never had any diagnosis or noticible symptoms. Every ne who knew me and my son back in the day were all eye witnesses to this. People see these things with their own eyes, and then lend pause to vaccines when they start child bearing. Perhaps if the medical community was a little more sensitive to these adverse events, instead of brusing the parents off, there would be open lines of communication, instead of parents feeling all alone in the vaccine injury journey. Vaccines are like any other drugs, not with out injury. The packaging insert tells us these things can, and do happen, the doctors are in a rush to say it didnt, to protect the public health policies.There is significant conflict going on, and has been for a long time. Vaccines are the only drug that have liability protection as they were injuring far too many children in the 1980's. So the Government mandated vaccines, and gave the Pharma industry protection from suit. It is nearly impossible to sue the industry, and non acceptance of liability for a product created is a recipe for poor standards and no concern.

4:59 pm May 2, 2013

Rogue Medic wrote:

"Health officials say that some children weren’t vaccinated because of fears that the shots cause autism, though that link with the disorder is disputed by most world health experts."

The link with autism is based on the fraudulent work of Andrew Wakefield trying to discredit the MMR vaccine in order to sell his own vaccine.

You make it seem as if there is some validity to the scare. Parents are understandably worried about what is best for their children. They do not need balanced coverage between real doctors and someone so unethical that he is prohibited from practicing medicine.

.

5:38 pm May 2, 2013

Art Hotz wrote:

It still amazes me how people expect privacy on the internet. If you don't want someone to know something, don't e-mail it, don't post it, and don't participate in a Public online forum. Glaxo should be praised for trying to combat the autism/vaccine hoax which harmed innocent children.

3:01 pm May 6, 2013

CMFM wrote:

Interesting article.

I am amazed that people think reading other peoples' posts is intrusive or an invasion of privacy. They are writing in a medium that is public - ON THE INTERNET ! Lets see - I just read this piece by Joel Schectman, Reporter and may share it on Twitter and Facebook. Does that mean I am stalking him? Or 'monitoring' what he is writing?

Newsflash - Unless you are operating on a strictly cash basis (i.e. no debit or credit cards) and stay off the internet - big and little companies will have a way of knowing what you do.

9:14 am May 8, 2013

Mat wrote:

So GSK is using the internet to improve their marketing techniques by better educating doctors who are their front line sales people. Meanwhile the government has brought in scientists from gsk to advise them and are planning to move scientists from Portondown to GSK and then they have invested loads of pension money in GSK so GSK is basically the government and educational minister along with the pensions minister and they are involved in biological weopons research and vaccines can be used as a transportation method for sterility but don't worry you can trust the government afterall when have they ever done anything wrong?

5:47 am April 27, 2014

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